Cinnamon Roll-ercoaster
Plot * Team Challenge 1: The top 20 contestants are faced with their first Team Challenge. Each of the two teams must serve their own unique version of a hamburger with onion rings and coleslaw and a fish & chips dish for the thousands of hungry visitors ofKnott's Berry Farm. The cooks were split into teams of ten. The Red team consisted of Amanda, Charlie, Christopher, Jesse, Justin, Kerry, Nick, Shelly, Stephen and Veronica, while the Blue team consisted of Ailsa, Claudia, Dan, Darah, Derrick, Hetal, Katrina, Olivia, Sara and Tommy (as most of the female contestants ran to Dan). The judges selected Kerry as the Red team captain (as he works in HR)and Darah as the Blue team captain (as she works in an amusement park). During the challenge, Darah's poor leadership and organization skills caused the Blue team to fall behind in preparation. The red team are making hamburgers with panko crusted onion rings and lime sriracha ketchup, and cajun spiced crusted fish and chips. While the blue team are servingcheeseburgers with beer battered onion rings and chipotle mayonnaise, and beer battered fish and chips.Tensions started to rise between Katrina and Tommy as Tommy urged Katrina to work quicker with the batter, but Katrina thought he was being irritating. Meanwhile, the Red team also experienced difficulties in preparation as they wanted to serve three different sauces with the burger, which Gordon chastised them for and urged them to focus on making one sauce. When Gordon checked on the Blue team before the guests arrived, he discovered that no fish was cooked as Katrina fell behind with doing the batter for both the fish and the onion rings resulting in Claudia quickly stepped in to fry the fish. As the guests arrived, the Red team began to run short on onion rings due to Kerry having difficulties balancing responsibilities between cooking and leading the team, and Nick quickly stepped in to make the onion rings. As service went on, Gordon discovered that the Blue's team's fish wasn't cooked properly and was raw in the center due to the batter being too thick and threatened to close it down if he discovered another raw fish. On the other hand, the Red team had recovered from the earlier hassle, while the reviews from guests seemed pretty even for both teams. When all the guests were fed, the Red team received 59% of the votes while the Blue team received 41% of the votes. Therefore, the Red team was declared winner of the team challenge, sending the Blue team to the pressure test. * Pressure Test 1: The ten members of the Blue team were told that only five of them would have to participate in the pressure test. Tommy vocally expressed his dissatisfaction with Katrina saying she wasn't communicating to him at all during the challenge, leaving Katrina visibly upset and angry. As the Team Captain, Darah would be deciding which five cooks (including herself) will be saved. She decided to save Ailsa, Claudia, Sara, Dan and finally Hetal. (Katrina was annoyed at the decision as she felt Darah was only saving her friends and not actually people who had put in the work during the Team Challenge.) However, Hetal declined the immunity and offered Derrick to be sent to safety in her place, to which the judges respected her decision. The judges thought Darah's overall choices were "bizarre" and thought that Katrina and Derrick should have been the first two saved. As a result, Darah, Hetal, Katrina, Olivia and Tommy were put up in an pressure test in which the home cooks will make 12 cinnamon rolls for the three judges in 45 minutes. During cooking, Tommy told Gordon that he wanted Katrina out of the competition for "throwing him under the bus" during the challenge, to which Katrina responded that Tommy will be sent home "because all he can do is talk". At the end of the test, Darah's cinnamon rolls were raw and undercooked and the judges commented the flavors were overly complicated and just didn't work together at all. Hetal's cinnamon rolls, despite the dreary presentation, were greatly liked by the judges and Gordon complimented her courage for "taking the hit" and saw the potential of a unique baker in her. Katrina's cinnamon rolls were also liked by the judges, however Graham expressed his disappointment of her leaving the baking paper in the box. Olivia's cinnamon rolls were well baked and had good flavors but they weren't rolled tight enough. Lastly, Tommy's green tea and pistachio cinnamon rolls were heavily criticized by Gordon for looking very unappetizing, saying it was like a box of "sick" and "should have come with a health warning". Despite that, Gordon thought some parts of his cinnamon rolls actually tasted decent. With the best cinnamon rolls, Hetal was the first to be sent to safety much to the delight of the other contestants. With only minor flaws in their cinnamon rolls, Katrina and Olivia were also sent to safety, leaving Darah and Tommy as the bottom two. In the end, Darah was eliminated for having the worst cinnamon rolls of the night, along with her poor performance as team captain, much to Katrina's dismay. This marked the first time in MasterChef history that a chef was sent home in a challenge that they had the choice of being exempted from.